It is a fact commonly trotted out by the Church of England that about a
million people attend a service each week. And in the most basic sense that
the Church is about bottoms on seats then a good many of the latter are
about as comfortable, and as modern, as Vincent van Gogh’s pine and rattan
chair, which he painted in 1888. Which goes some way to explaining why
earlier this year the Church of England launched a competition entitled Design
a Church Chair! (exclamation marks being compulsory in the Church of
England).